The "Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer" is typical of the kind of thing one would find laying around the house of an "Oak Ridger" back in the 1960's. The one shown below was Dad's.
The instructions state..."as a convenience to those interested in the effects of nuclear weapons, this circular computer was designed to make data easily available on various weapon effects - some as functions of both yield and range and others on yield alone...". And who would not want to know all that, right?
Oak Ridge Hospital circa 1945. Photograph by Ed Westcott.
I was born at a very early age on November 7, 1947, in the maternity ward of the Oak Ridge Hospital, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Oak Ridge is sometimes called the "Secret City". There are many reasons for this which I will tell you about in the future, when we are both older and wiser. For now though I just want to tell you about my birth. Not because it was so remarkable, but because it seems like a good place to begin. The stories I will tell you will not all be about me. But my story is the story I know best so we might as well start there.
1947 "film noir" movie poster.
Do you like detective stories? I do. One of my favorite movie genres as a boy were called "film noir". The leading male characters in "film noir" were usually private eyes with tough cases to solve which they always managed to do by asking the right questions and a lot of good detective work. My birth took place many years ago and of course I don't remember much about it. In fact there are no living witnesses who we can question. But there are clues. Let's take a close look at the clues and see what we can learn.
Exhibit "A"
On the left is Exhibit "A", a Tennessee birth certificate. It is in fact my birth certificate. I know it looks small, but you can "click" it to see it larger. You can learn a lot from reading birth certificates. Let's take a closer look at mine to see what we can discover. It states that I was born on November 7, 1947. Hey, I already knew that but there it is in writing. It doesn't say what day of the week it was but with a little investigating we can quickly find that out. Turns out, I was born on a Friday. Oh boy, just in time for the weekend. I wonder what the weather was that day? With a little more sleuthing we learn that the high that day was 59 deg. and the low was 43 deg. with 0.30 inches of precipitation, which was three times the average amount precipitation for that time of the year. In other words, the day I came into the world was cool and damp.
"Baby Boy Case"
It was also dark. The lower right hand corner of the birth certificate says I was born at 12:40 AM. I don't know about you, but that must have been way past my bedtime. It looks like I came into the world sleepy, and between you and me I've been kind of sleepy ever since. I think my Mom was even more tired and sleepy. It says on the birth certificate that she had been in the hospital for 52 3/4 hours before I finally popped, slithered, or was just plain squeezed on out. I don't remember any of those details, probably because I was so sleepy. At any rate, Mom's labor apparently went on for more than two days. She must have been more than ready for that project to come to a conclusion. Did you see my name on the birth certificate? It says "Baby Boy Case"...BABY BOY CASE?! Huh? My Mom told me later that when I was born she and my father had not yet picked out a name for me. Can you believe that? I mean after all, they only had nine whole months to think about it! Talk about the mother of all procrastinators. Have you ever tried to get a passport using a birth certificate that did not even have your real name on it? I mean, come on Mom!
Claudy, er, uh, I mean, "Claudia" F. Osborn.
But here I go talking about my Mom without properly introducing her to you. She taught me much better manners than that, so let's make things right. Her name was Claudia F. Osborn. Actually, it was Claudy F. Osborn but she hated the name "Claudy" and told everybody that her name was "Claudia". I know why, but I will save that story for another day. I'll also tell you what the "F." in her name stood for. She hated that name too. But I digress. Anyway, here she is in the photo on the right. This picture may have been taken in the very early stages of my mother's pregnancy...before I started to show up as a little round lump in her belly. As you can see, she was very pretty. You might even say she was beautiful. I always thought so and I know others did as well. She was also very young at the time this picture was made. As it states in the birth certificate, she was only 21 years old when I was born.
The photo was taken in the living room of a duplex at 205 Vermont Avenue, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. That is where I lived for the first three years of my life. I don't remember much about those years so they must have been pretty uneventful...at least for me. Incredibly I do remember two things from those years which I will tell you about in a later post. I will also tell you more about my mom and dad. But you can already learn a few things about them by taking a close look at the birth certificate. Let's see how well you do. Here is a quiz:
What did the "F" in my mother's name stand for?
What color or race was she?
Where was she born?
What was her usual occupation?
How many months had my mom been pregnant when I was born?
What does the birth certificate say about my dad?
One more task for you...find "Vermont Ave., Oak Ridge, Tennessee" on a google map. Our duplex at 205 Vermont Ave is not there anymore. In fact almost all of the duplex apartments in that part of town are gone now. If you look closely at the picture of the hospital you can see that at one time there were them. Our duplex was right across the street from the present day Family Clinic of Oak Ridge and just a couple of blocks from the hospital. As you can see, I was born very close to my first home.
